NAME: Nevada Monique Mackensen
DATE OF BIRTH: 6/22/3000 (unverified)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Katinka, Aurigan Coalition (unverified)
AFFILIATION: Aurigan Coalition (formerly), Eridani Light Horse
NOTES: Many Aurigan Coalition data files, including birth certificates, schooling records, and enlistment files, have been either lost in the coup of House Espinoza over House Arano, or withdrawn from the public record due to the censorship of the current Aurigan Directorate. Little of Captain Mackensen's past is thus verifiable, and the following record is primarily word-of-mouth testimony prior to her enlistment in the Eridani Light Horse.
HISTORICAL DATA: According to Captain Mackensen, she hails from a lower-class family on the Aurigan world of Katinka. Her childhood was apparently of little note, beyond her own admittance of a celebrity crush on Kamea Arano as a teenager. Mackensen joined the Aurigan Colonial Military's MechWarrior academy upon becoming of age in 3018, but never graduated and was not given a commission. Mackensen states she was expelled after an altercation with another cadet over the growing rift between House Arano and House Espinoza, getting into an argument with the cadet who apparently sided with Santiago Espinoza's suggestion to dissolve the Founding Council. Mackensen, previously not particularly inclined politically to one side or another, retorted with a list of downsides, to which the other cadet took offense, and began a brawl that saw them both expelled.
Trained, but unable to serve in the ACM, Mackensen turned to mercenary work. After serving in two small Periphery mercenary companies for less than two months apiece, taking issue with a general lack of morality, Mackensen put her funds towards a ticket into the Inner Sphere. She ended up as a solo mercenary running a rundown BJ-1 Blackjack by 3020.
Nevada Mackensen was hired, officially, by the Eridani Light Horse on 07/27/3020, after having reportedly impressed Captain Omoru Kimura of 2nd Company, 16th Cavalry Battalion during an operation alongside his company against pirates. Her Blackjack destroyed two Javelins and a Phoenix Hawk while holding out for reinforcements, before being finally destroyed by a Shadowhawk. Surviving with mild injuries, Mackensen was evaluated once she recovered and was hired after being deemed satisfactory, being sorted into the 151st Regiment and granted first a JVN-10F Javelin. This 'Mech was lost in combat in late 3021, and she transferred to a WVR-6R Wolverine, and subsequently has kindly refused any further reassignment.
By the Battle of Hoff in 3023-24, Lieutenant Mackensen commanded a lance of the 50th Heavy Cavalry Battalion, 151st Light Horse Regiment. She distinguished herself well in the tough fighting against the Wolf's Dragoons, and earned commendation from Major Simon Kroger, Jr., after her lance ambushed a lance of ANH-1A Annihilator assault 'mechs attempting to shell the company headquarters. The resulting ambush destroyed three of the Annihilators and severely damaged the fourth, in exchange for the loss of a Phoenix Hawk and moderate to severe damage to the remaining three 'mechs in her lance.
Kroger recommended she be promoted to Captain and placed as a company commander, shortly before Major Harrison "Harry" Foley of the 16th Cavalry Battalion, 81st Light Horse Regiment, met with Lady Kamea Arano of the overthrown Aurigan Coalition. After Foley convinced Brevet General Nathan Armstrong to accept the contract, with the 16th Cavalry taking front and center of the operation, Mackensen's promotion was confirmed and she was transferred to take command of 2nd Company, 16th Cavalry.
CONFIRMED KILLS:
BattleMechs: 29 (+6 probables, +14 shared)
Armored Vehicles: 22 (+13 probables, +25 shared)
Weapons Emplacements: 11 (+7 shared)
Infantry: Unknown
